Page 43 of Dancing With Guilt
“Actually, I have an errand to run if you two are good for a little while?” Lincoln looked at his daughter and Katie, who both nodded.
“We’ll be fine, Mr. er, I mean, Lincoln.” Katie blushed, her pretty pale cheeks turning bright red. “I’ll start dinner, shall I?”
“If you’d like. My mother was just here and fed me enough to feed all of us, so don’t worry about me. I may be a little while, so don’t wait up.”
“Is everything alright, Lincoln?” Katie asked, her brows together in worry. Had it been something he said?
“Uh, Roxie and I had a bit of a spat earlier, I’m just going out to find her,” Lincoln whispered so that Lily wouldn’t hear.
“Ah, I understand. No worries, we’ll entertain ourselves this evening.” Katie nodded and shooed at Lily. “Grab a bag, girl, and let’s get upstairs.”
“See you later, Daddy,” Lily called, and Lincoln couldn’t help but smile.
“See you later, munchkin,” Lincoln answered as he left the house.
Now, where would a very pissed-off woman who’d just been completely heartbroken go? Back to Nick’s? He drove over to the building but didn’t find Roxie’s car there. He thought about the hotel she used to stay at, but she wasn’t there either.
Next, he drove over to her apartment above Lemon Fresh, but her car wasn’t there either. Lincoln drove away, thinking as he drove, going through the names in his contact list.
His first call was to Wendy.
“Hey, Lincoln, how are you?” Wendy asked, though it was obvious in her voice that she was confused why he was calling her.
“I’m fine, Wendy. I’m just trying to locate Roxie. You haven’t seen her, have you?” He asked as nonchalantly as he could.
“Noooo,” Wendy said, drawling out the word. “But now you have me worried.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing. I didn’t mean to worry you, but call me if you hear from her, alright?” Lincoln said, suddenly remembering how Roxie had said there’d been cars trailing her lately.
He’d dismissed it, assuming she was either being paranoid or the people had been with Nick. But what if she wasn’t paranoid and they weren’t Nick’s people? Fuck.
He flicked through phone numbers until the one person he didn’t want to call showed up on his screen. Nick.
Lincoln pulled into a parking lot and stared at the name.
She’d run to the guy when Lincoln kicked her out of his house, and said he was one of her best friends. Lincoln knew for a fact the man wanted much more than friendship from Roxie, but she didn’t seem to notice that. Not even when he’d caught the guy kissing her. Even then, she’d acted like it had been nothing.
She was madder that he’d acted like a dick to Nick than she was about the guy kissing her. It was obvious that’s who she’d run to now, so as much as he might hate it, Lincoln knew he’d have to call the asshole.
“Hello?” Nick asked when he picked up the call.
“Hi, Nick. It’s Lincoln Young,” he said, trying not to sneer into the phone.
“Lincoln. What can I do for you?” Nick asked, as calm as he always was, even when Lincoln was antagonizing him. Prick.
“You can tell me where Roxie is,” Lincoln said, leaving off the slurs he really wanted to use.
“Pardon?” Nick asked, obviously unperturbed by the barely-there veil of civility Lincoln was using.
“Roxie left the house earlier and she’s not back yet. Is she with you?”
“No, Lincoln she’s not. I haven’t heard from her today.”
“Right, like you’d tell me if she was standing right there in front of you,” Lincoln said, wanting to knock the guy’s teeth out.
“Look, Lincoln, it’s no secret I don’t think you deserve Roxie, but she sees something in you. I don’t see it, but I’m not her.” Nick laughed, a laugh that had a very definite ‘fuck you’ in it, but Lincoln let it go. “I’m at my apartment now, you can come here if you’d like, to prove I’m being honest.”
“Fine, give me the address.” Lincoln jotted it down and drove to Nick’s place, knowing that he was probably going to make another mistake doing this, but he needed to know for sure that Roxie wasn’t with Nick. If she wasn’t, that might mean something much worse was going on. Something he didn’t want to think about. At all.
